Olympics 2024: Swiatek, Alcaraz, and Djokovic begin gold chase with wins

Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz got the Paris Olympics tennis competition started with first-round victories under closed roofs at Roland Garros, the site of their French Open titles less than two months ago.

Novak Djokovic also won in straight sets as he, like Swiatek and Alcaraz, opened a bid for a first Olympic gold medal. Djokovic's second-round opponent could be longtime rival Rafael Nadal, who was scheduled to play his opening singles match Sunday but said he isn't sure whether he will remain in that event.
 

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Check Paris Olympics 2024 DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS

Tomorrow, I don't know what's going to happen, Nadal said Saturday. I don't know if I'm going to play or not.

In Saturday's last match, Angelique Kerber defeated Naomi Osaka 7-5, 6-3 in a contest between two women who have been ranked No. 1 and own multiple Grand Slam titles. Kerber has said she will retire after representing Germany at these Games; Osaka was hoping for a deeper run than her third-round exit at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago after lighting the cauldron during the opening ceremony in her native Japan.

Nadal, the Spaniard who won a record 14 of his 22 Grand Slam titles at the French Open and owns two Summer Games golds, was a surprise torch carrier during the rain-soaked opening ceremony along the Seine River on Friday night. He won his doubles opener alongside Alcaraz on Saturday night.

Nadal has not made entirely clear whether or not these Summer Games will be the final event of his career. He is 38 and has been dealing with injuries for much of the past two seasons. Nadal and Alcaraz never had played doubles together, but they got past the sixth-seeded Argentine duo of Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 7-6 (4), 6-4.

The No. 1-ranked Swiatek claimed four of her five career major championships in Paris and grabbed the last four games to beat Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu 6-2, 7-5, while reigning French Open and Wimbledon champ Alcaraz defeated Lebanon's Hady Habib 6-3, 6-1.

Serbia's Djokovic, who is seeded No. 1 in the men's field after Jannik Sinner pulled out with tonsillitis, needed less than an hour for a 6-0, 6-1 win against Australia's Matthew Ebden a doubles player participating in a tour-level singles match for the first time in two years. Ebden got into the singles bracket because he was in Paris to play doubles and thus available when 16th-ranked Holger Rune of Denmark withdrew with an injured wrist.

Ebden's lone game came after he was already down 6-0, 4-0 and he celebrated by pulling the front of his yellow shirt over his head and baring his chest to roars from the flag-dotted crowd.

The last time Djokovic was in Paris, early last month, he needed surgery for a torn meniscus in his right knee after getting injured during the French Open. He managed to not only play at Wimbledon but also reach the final before losing to Alcaraz.

I do feel more ready now than I was before Wimbledon and I really do feel better prepared, Djokovic said Saturday. Olympics, from the beginning of the year, was one of the highest goals and objectives and priorities for this year. So let's see how it goes.

Poland's Swiatek, who won a third consecutive championship at Court Philippe Chatrier just seven weeks ago, got broken in that same stadium to trail 5-3 in the second set before getting back to her usual clay-court expertise. She wrapped up the victory by breaking at love when Begu double-faulted on the last point.

Day 1 of tennis began with showers that might have contributed to slow lines for umbrella-toting spectators at the facility's security checks near entrances and led to the postponements of 37 of the day's 47 scheduled matches.

That's because just two of the 12 competitions courts have retractable roofs.

It's a good thing the French tennis federation built a pair of movable covers recently: 15,000-capacity Chatrier added one in 2020, and the second-largest arena, 10,000-capacity Court Suzanne Lenglen, has one as of this year.

Italy's Jasmine Paolini, who was the runner-up to Swiatek at the French Open in June and to Barbora Krejcikova at Wimbledon two weeks ago, was the first tennis player to win a match at these Summer Games, eliminating Romania's Ana Bogdan 7-5, 6-3 at Lenglen.

Other winners included 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev of Russia and Taylor Fritz of the United States, but No. 17 seed Caroline Garcia lost 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to Jaqueline Adina Cristian of Romania.

Coco Gauff, the female flag bearer for the United States on Friday, made her Olympic debut Saturday with Jessica Pegula in doubles, and they beat Australia's Daria Saville and Ellen Perez 6-3, 6-1. Gauff won the French Open doubles title with Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic last month and the U.S. Open singles trophy last September.

Three years ago, Gauff missed the Tokyo Games after testing positive for COVID-19 right before she was supposed to fly to Japan.